A Gassy Tale
by Tenshiko Hatake
Summary: Gazzy is kidnapped by Itex to fuel a lethal weapon, designed to annihilate the earth in a single blast. But Max and the flock are hellbent on getting him back. Set post-Book 3. Please R & R!
1. Chapter 1

"Relax, Max, just crouch; watch."

I crouch and feel Fang crouch beside me, bunch up his muscles, take off, spread his wings, higher, higher, then suddenly, he turns, vertical, folds up his wings, and drops.

"FANG!" I scream.

I watch, helpless, as he plummets towards the earth. Then, just before he hits, he opens his wings and swerves 90° to the right. I feel my jaw drop; that is some seriously cool aerobatics. Fang turns around and sees my gaping expression. He gives me the world's smuggest smirk and says: "Now you try."

"I can do anything you can do!" I yell, intent on proving my superiority, and leap up into the welcoming sky. I fold up my wings and dive. The pressure on my wings builds continually – how am I supposed to spread them now?! Lost in my thoughts, I fail to notice Fang getting closer and closer until, with a yelp from Fang, I crash headlong into his chest. We tumble through the air together. Fang hits the ground and I land with a thud on top.

"Owwww…Max, what've you been eating? You are sooo heavy."

"Hey, hey, I thought I was genetically modified so I could have _lighter _bones," I shoot back. We glare at each other, but soon we're both laughing.

Fang hoists himself up onto his elbows and I stop laughing, suddenly realising how close our faces are. Blood rushes to my head, making me feel faint. Fang's face gets closer to mine and -

"MAAAAAAAAAAX!!!" A high pitched scream fills my ears. I immediately jump off Fang and look around from the source of the noise. I see Angel, shrieking and hysterical, running towards me. She runs right up to me and flings her arms around me.

"MAX MAX MAX!" she yells.

"It's ok, honey, I'm here. What's wrong?"

"Gazzy's gone!"

"What?!" I turn to Fang, who is now standing beside me. My thoughts immediately turn to Iggy and Nudge. Are they ok?

"They're fine," Angel assures me.

"Then lets go get them," says Fang.

After we return to our sleeping tree, I ask Iggy and Nudge if they know where Gazzy had gone.

"Flyboys," answers Iggy. "About twenty of them. I'm sorry Max, I wanted to help, but 20 against 1 blind…"

I walk over and give him a hug. "You made the right decision. Do you know which way they went?"

He points to where the sun is rising over the treetops. "They went east."

I see Fang looking slightly worried, and I know I have that look. A mad gleam in my eye. I get it when I know there's a good fight coming up.

"Then what are we waiting for?"

While we fly, I can't help thinking about what Fang and I had been doing this morning. Or about to do at least. All the warmth and closeness…

"_I thought you said you didn't like Fang like that."_

I flush and turn to glare at Angel, who is grinning evilly.

Oh, the joys and sorrows of a six-year-old mind reader.

**Hi Guys! Thanks for reading this! Please review and let me know if you want me to continue the story! If I do continue this fic, just letting you know I prolly won't update that often; I do quite a bit of other stuff!! That and the fact that I haven't actually thought up a proper plot so...oops...I'll just let the Plot Bunny take it away from here!**

**Say "HI" to Mr Bunny!!**

**( )( )  
(-'.'-)  
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**If you have any ideas for this fic or plots you want added in just send a review and I'll see if I can put it in!**

**For Fax fans, there may be a little Fax Fluff (Always Avoid Alliteration...Please) but I'm not promising anything. Wait for the opportune moment...**

**Also, I get really worked up about spelling and grammar and all sorts of dumb stuff like that, so if you find any mistakes, could you let me know please?**

**Thanks again!**

**Tenshiko H.**


	2. Chapter 2

Yo! Tenshiko here! If you're reading this, then I wanna thank you for sticking around with such a dumb, un-updated story! Not all that long ago I randomly realized that I had set the genre as humour as well as adventure…not a smart move on my part as I'm not exactly the world's greatest comedian…But, I've decided that I will go ahead with this challenge BUT! I'm not that great a writer so, because my…"true passion" I guess you could call it, lies in reading manga and watching anime, I'm going to add a somewhat "anime" element to the story. That actually just means sweatdrops, eyetwitches, and other dumb stuff will be in the story so, if you find you don't understand something, don't hesitate to ask me about it. And the way I write will prolly seem different; really un-Maximum Ride-ish but HEY! That's what fanfiction is all about! If you don't like what I do with the story, feel free to message me or put it in your review and I'm sure we can compromise! Once you finish reading this chapter, you'll want to annihilate me (and the story) in a massive fireball, but I beg of you, please refrain and send only the small flames my way ;) Well, with that done, on with the story!

…

Disclaimer: Sorry I forgot to put a disclaimer last time, so I'll just have to make it up to you this time. I don't own Maximum Ride times two.

We (that is I) head straight to Ella's house.

"Max, where do you think you're going? The Flyboys went _that _way." Fang points in the direction that the Flyboys went.

"I'm going to get some of that magical medicine we generally refer to as 'choc chip cookies'. Heals any injury. Just the smell of them will have Gazzy running out of Itex in 2 seconds flat."

Fang frowns, not impressed with my reasoning. "Well then, Miss…Cookie, while you're off stuffing yourself with goodies, we'll be off saving Gazzy, won't we?" He turns to the others for support, but they won't meet his eyes. "Nice to know you're all so motivated," he sneers, but in a very Fang way. And Fang way is cool. But unfortunately, right now I'm top dog.

Iggy and Nudge rub the backs of their heads apologetically, while Angel just smiles so sweetly I feel like melting. I give him the cheesiest grin possible (Ping! Go my extra white teeth [NB: See Nice Guy Pose), and flash him a quick thumbs up. The vein pulsing in his temple looks like it's gonna explode.

But it doesn't. It stops eventually, and, with a moment's hesitation, Fang grudgingly complies. Nobody, I repeat _nobody, _can win against the might of the choc chip cookie. My inner self does a victory dance, but I knock her out. Knowing how bad I dance is bad enough. We all continue flying towards Ella's house.

You probably think I'm really cruel, putting cookies before Gazzy, but that's not entirely true. Sure, there will be cookies at Ella's house, but I also have a plan which I need Dr Martinez's help for. One that includes LOTS of baked beans. I just hope that Gazzy can lay off the musical fruit until we get there.

…

_Meanwhile, somewhere in the Itex top secret laboratories…_

"Achoo!" Gazzy sneezed [NB: See Sneeze. He looks up from inside his specially manufactured cage, eyes still blurry, to see a man in glasses and a white lab coat holding a tray. On the tray is a stainless steel spoon.

Accompanied by a large tin of baked beans.

"Oh bottoms…"

…

We land and I immediately run towards the house. It flings open and standing in the doorway is Ella.

"Max!" she squeals excitedly. We hug each other tightly before turning and beckoning to the rest of the flock. "It's so good to see you all! I must have some sort of sixth sense or something 'cos I knew you guys were gonna come!" she babbles while hugging each Fang, Iggy, Nudge and Angel in turn. "And Mum and I made a huge batch of cookies for you all and we noticed last time how much Gazzy…" She falters momentarily, smile slipping from her face. "Gazzy? Max, what happened to Gazzy?"

My face gets all serious. "That matter will be discussed inside if you don't mind," I say.

She nods gravely and motions for us all to come inside. "Of course, come in. We can talk while we eat. I hope you don't mind, but Jeb's come to visit as well."

I instantly stiffen, and I feel Fang, who has come up to stand behind me, stiffen too. I'm still not entirely sure I'm ok with the fact that Jeb Batchelder, the one who betrayed us all, is actually my dad. But right now there are more important matters at hand. Like Gazzy's life.

"We'll survive," I tell her curtly. She nods again and we all make our way inside.

"Max! It's so good to see you again, sweetie," as always, Dr Mar- I mean, _Mum_ is overflowing with gentle kindness. She gives each of us a quick cuddle before seating us down in the living room and bringing out the cookies. We all squeeze up onto a couch opposite a sofa, on which is seated none other than Jeb Batchelder.

"How are you, Max?" he asks, giving me a warm smile.

My throat clogs up. I can't help it. "H- hel- HELLO!" I almost yell. Seeing him still hurts me, especially now that I know he's my dad. And that scares me.

Jeb looks concerned, but is unable to persue it as Ella and Dr Martinez walk in with a tray of coffee, hot chocolate and fresh cookies. Everyone takes a cup and a cookie (or three) and settles back down.

"Tell us about Gazzy, Max," Dr Martinez says softly.

"_Try and read Jeb,"_ I think as loud as I can to Angel. Then I tell them.

…

"_Jeb's head is empty," _Angel tells me after I finish telling them.

I turn to Jeb and stare him down. "Tell us what you know."

He looks like I just pointed a gun at him and told him to strangle a chicken.

"I promise you, Max, I know _nothing _of this!"

I'm still sceptical, but he sounds like he's telling the truth. "Well, whatever they want with Gazzy, we're going to fix it so that Gazzy will _personally _make them pay. But we need some help." I turn to Ella and Dr Martinez. "Do you know how we can get lots of baked beans, and quickly?"

"Of course, sweetie, leave it to us."

"Oh, and can I please have the cans with the lids half on? I'd like to make a few bombs," Iggy pipes up.

Jeb and Dr Martinez don't seem entirely sure about this, but they don't press the matter.

"Well then, with that settled, we're going shopping tomorrow!" Dr Martinez announces. "Oh, and by the way, Max, what exactly do you need the beans for?"

I grin evilly. "The whitecoats don't seem to appreciate bombs that go 'boom', so we're gonna give them bombs that go 'pffffffffffft'."

Everyone ponders this for a moment, before falling over with their legs sticking up in the air, twitching.

…

Hope you enjoyed the chapter! It turned out a bit shorter than I had hoped but that seemed like the right time to stop. As always, please let me know if there are any mistakes, and leave a review!

Nice Guy Pose: I here borrowed the "Nice Guy Pose" used by Rock Lee and Might Gai (and sometimes Naruto) from Naruto. Sorry Kishimoto, but it really belongs to you.

Sneeze: Japanese people believe that if you sneeze it means someone's talking about you.

Next time: Max and co prepare to bust Gazzy out of Itex, and Ari makes an unexpected return.


End file.
